Highlights
- Dolly Parton is a legendary entertainer with over 100 million records sold, eleven Grammy Awards, and ten Country Music Association Awards.
- She has built an impressive business empire, including her own record label, publishing company, production company, and ownership of Dollywood.
- Parton's philanthropy is well-known, as she has donated millions of dollars to charitable causes and created the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library book gifting program.
With a career spanning over five decades, Dolly Parton has cemented her place in the entertainment industry, as a legend across music and film.
With over 100 million records sold, Parton stands among the best-selling female artists in the industry. A prolific singer and songwriter, Dolly has over 5,000 songs in her catalog.
Additionally, Parton has garnered credits for her contributions to songs by other artists.
Dolly has eleven Grammy Awards to her name (from a total of 50 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award) and ten Country Music Association Awards.
She has also received the Country Music Association's "Entertainer Of The Year" award, a distinction she shares with only seven other female artists.
RelatedDolly Parton Gives Her Fans A Gift On Her 77th Birthday
Dolly is known for her generosity, and she had a special gift for her fans on her birthday.The award-winning country singer has seen significant success in her career as an actress and as an entrepreneur to (cowboy) boot.
Parton's business empire includes her own record label, publishing company, and production company. She also jointly owns a theme park, Dollywood (along with Herschend Family Entertainment), and has a variety of other businesses.
In 2021, she made TIME magazine's list of "100 Most Influential People," under the extraordinarily apt heading of "Icon" – and in 2021, Vox.com decreed her a "secular American saint."
Young Dolly Parton: From Humble Beginnings ...
Young Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton was born into a poor farming family in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in 1946.
Dolly was the fourth of twelve children growing up in a one-room wooden cabin (without heat or running water) in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was an illiterate sharecropper. Her mother, Avie Lee, was a homemaker.
Despite her humble origins, Parton demonstrated a passion for music from a young age. She began writing songs when she was eight years old and learned to play the guitar from her uncle.
Parton embraced her childhood challenges with gratitude in her chart-topping 1971 track Coat Of Many Colors; she narrates the story of how her mother would craft clothing for her from rags, and how she would wear them despite being shamed at school for it.
Immediately following her graduation from Sevier County High School in 1964, Dolly relocated to Nashville to kick off her music career the very next day. She signed her first record deal with Combine Music, but her early recordings were not commercially successful.
However, upon expiration of that contract in 1966, a then 20-year-old Parton made the most critical business decision of her career: She founded her own publishing company with her uncle.
Dolly released her debut album, Hello I'm Dolly, in 1967. The same year, Parton met country music star Porter Wagoner; recognizing her potential, Wagoner invited Parton to become a regular guest on his popular syndicated television show, The Porter Wagoner Show.
Parton's appearances on The Porter Wagoner Show introduced her to a far wider audience.
She also began to release more successful albums, including Joshua (1970) and Coat Of Many Colors (1971). These albums featured Parton's signature blend of country music, pop, and rock and roll.
In 1973, Parton released her breakthrough album, Jolene; its title track was so influential in popular culture, it remains the topic of memes in the modern era:
The album featured many hit singles, including the title track, I Will Always Love You, and Jolene, which made Parton a superstar in the country music world.
RelatedDolly Parton Receives $100 Million Courage And Civility Award From Jeff Bezos
Parton, who has donated to various causes for decades, publicly thanked Bezos and Sanchez on Twitter.Transition To Pop, Hollywood, And Country Music Superstardom
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dolly Parton began to transition to pop music.
Demonstrating her efforts to be more involved in production, she co-produced the 1976 album All I Can Do with Porter Wagoner, and specifically aimed her music in a more mainstream, pop-focused direction.
Her first entirely self-produced effort, New Harvest... First Gathering (1977) highlighted her pop sensibilities. She also released several successful pop singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including Here You Come Again and Islands in the Stream, a duet with Kenny Rogers.
In addition to myriad musical successes, Parton began acting in films in the early 1980s. In her silver screen debut 9 To 5, Parton played the role of an office secretary alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
The film received praise for raising awareness concerning discrimination against women in workplaces, and Parton received a Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year."
She came back for a second role in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress."
Parton teamed up with Sylvester Stallone for Rhinestone in 1984. Dolly has appeared in over 14 movies, most of which were musicals.
Dollywood And Production Work: Building A Multi-Faceted Business Empire
With Dolly's remarkable success has come great wealth.
Dolly Parton's extensive songwriting catalog encompasses over 3,000 song credits. This collection generates significant revenue through royalties.
Some of her hit songs, such as 9 To 5 and Jolene, bring in around $8 million in royalty payments annually; she was paid $20 million when Whitney Houston covered her song I Will Always Love Youfor The Bodyguard in 1992.
Forbes estimates her catalog, of which she maintains complete ownership, is worth about $150 million.
In 1986, she partnered with Herschend Family Entertainment to transform their eastern Tennessee amusement park, Silver Dollar City, into Dollywood, building Dolly-themed spots like Aunt Granny's restaurant, the 450-seat Back Porch theater, and the rafting ride Smoky Mountain River Rampage.
In its first year, Dollywood attracted over a million visitors. The park is now Tennessee's most-visited tourist attraction, drawing about three million visitors annually.
Parton's 50 percent stake is worth about $165 million, Forbes estimates.
In addition to Dollywood, Parton also owns several other businesses, including Dolly Records, her own record label; Dolly Parton Productions, her own production company; and Dolly Parton's Stampede, a dinner and show attraction.
Parton has further invested in several other businesses, including real estate, restaurants, and retail stores.
Parton is also a respected and notorious philanthropist. She has generously donated millions of dollars to various charitable causes, including her own foundation, the Dollywood Foundation, an education foundation to decrease the high school dropout rates in Tennessee.
In 1995, the foundation set up Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book gifting program which distributes a million books every month to children worldwide as of late 2023.
Dolly Parton is a true American icon. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, a savvy businesswoman, and a generous philanthropist.
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